Pickers in my fingers!

And I smell of bleach. Even after changing my clothes and washing my hair, I still smell of bleach. Probably a shower and wearing my night clothes would answer that problem but since it is not even dark yet, I am holding off. You never know if someone is going to call about going to supper, even though I finished my leftovers from Koko's only a couple hours ago. I love when it happens---the last minute phone call asking if I have plans for dinner, and my rule is: if the phone rings and a better offer comes up, the stove (figuratively and literally speaking) is shut off and out the door I go! Once I had to wait until a pie was finished baking but still I went off to socialize!

*

Last night, Jen called to report they were going to the "new" Smokey's on 218 and asked me to come along. Certainly! I had not eaten bbq in a long time, and did not last night either. I arrived before they did, so the waitress brought me a basket of some delicious looking morsels in a basket. She did not say what they were at first but then told me these morsels are "fried pretzels"! Imagine that! Little pieces of the doughy-style pretzels like they have at the movies, fried, and then salted and garlicked, if that's a word. Yummy! For my meal I had the hot dog and corn nuggets instead of the pulled pork because I ate too many pretzel pieces, I guess!

*

It is incredibly windy outside right now, and a lone pelican is bobbing in the river as the water appears to flow away from the shore. It was over 80 degrees today, quite lovely, and perfect for working in the church yard with Tara and family. It is a huge stretch to describe that I "worked" with them but served in the leadership role Cindy recommended for this project. Tara brought gloves today as the other day she tore up her hands trying to pull the picky vines from among the bushes. I picked up what she pulled out in order to shove it in the garbage bag, but without gloves, ouch!!!! My knuckles on the right hand were full of pickers just from that little bit of handling. It gives me goosebumps even now just thinking about it.

*

Carl came along with Tara and the kids to work on the A/C in the Fellowship Hall which evidently was on the fritz. He did something which included getting the ladder out, and little CJ helped him wash the filters with the hose. Then he came over to help Tara with some raking while Shiloh watched from stroller, no duct tape! In the meantime, I went in to do the vacuum cleaning in the church. Vacuuming always works up a sweat for me, besides it being warm outside, so I was mopping and vacuuming at the same time. At one point I looked up and there stood the Kelley's, having driven all the way over from Arlington to clean. We are having HUGE problems trying to figure out the cleaning, greeting, and altar guild schedules as some changes have been made to how it is spelled out. Not quite clearly enough, it seems. And the service folder tell us a different story than the posted schedule of duties. So, sometimes the church gets cleaned twice in a week by two different teams, or not at all some weeks. I think we need some clarification on this. Because they came so far, I left them to finish the cleaning and went back outside to oversee the flower bed.

*

Two yard sales ago, I sold the pressure washer which had ceased to do the job it was intended to do, that being using pressure to clean. It lost its umph! My plan was to replace it and keep it at church in the garage, once we have a garage again. In the meantime however, the support columns which hold the changeable sign in the flower bed were quite black with mold/mildew, and no way to clean it---------unless...................How about a spray bottle from under my kitchen sink, mixed with dish soap and bleach, and squirted pump-style on the blackness??? No wonder my forearms are complaining now! But it seemed to have done the trick, at least, as far as I could tell. It might not be dark black any more, but was not quite white like it used to be. Only the pressure washer would remove the total soil, but for now, I think it will be okay.

*

Little CJ helped his mama and me plant some of the bulbs in the loose soil in the flower bed. We decided to let the lantana grow back in but keep it groomed so it will not be so wild looking. It occured to me that perhaps the bulbs were irises but I simply cannot remember. Like Tara said, we will be surprised---yes, we will, we will be surprised IF they come up, and when they come up!

Well, that is the price I pay for sleeping!

All the missed sleep has been made up, and then some! After going to bed early, at some point during the night I woke up. I started looking around on the channels for something to lull me back to sleep, as I knew it was not morning by the color of the sky. I have no clocks in my room, relying on the sun or light to tell me when to get up. Must be the Indian in me!

*

First I found "Roseanne" and let a couple of those go by, reminding me of my sister, Lori. When I got married and moved "away" from home, an hour and half south of my home town, she reported not missing me so much anymore when "Roseanne" was on TV!! On one particular episode back in '74 or '75, someone dropped dead in Roseanne's house and as the gurney is being wheeled passed her, she addresses the corpse with the words, "Say hello to Janis from me", prompting my phone to ring---some of my sisters calling---wondering if I heard that. Neat memory-stirrer, that one. I quit watching her program after it was not so funny anymore, cannot say exactly when that happened.

*

Finding nothing else besides infomercials to listen to at that hour, I decided to use "Seinfeld" as my lullaby. The disc in my machine is one which has the "100 Episodes" recap, which is normally quite amusing and causes me to burst out laughing, but not this time.....back toward sleep I went. (If I put on Fox News Channel when trying to fall asleep, it has the opposite result, stirs me up as I get involved in the debate or discussion, certainly not lulling material!)

*

At some point I woke again and realized the DVD had ended, so I just pushed the buttons until regular TV came back on, and went back to sleep again. Dream time! My cropping friend, Carol, was joining Martie and me for an afternoon of "work", but her hubby called with an urgent request for her to come home. We walked (now I know it's a dream!) with her to see what was going on, only to find their lawn under water from the sprinklers. Only, it was about a foot deep! Some lawn, and some sprinklers! Her hubby, not her real one in the dream, came out and was arm waving, cursing and swearing at her, all excited as if this was her doing. I reprimanded him for speaking that way to my friend. I guess his father had caulked the sprinkler heads open, thinking he was helping. These males were of Asian descent, another strange angle to the dream.

*

Next we were on a huge airplane which had a workroom just for us to crop in, looks like a kitchen. Before we could work, though, we had to sit in seats for take-off and I realized I was cradling my friend, Ellen, in my arms and comforting her, as she held a photo of Billy in her hands. I told her how glad I was that she decided to go with us on this magical mystery trip, as I had no clue where we were going. She tearfully reminisced about how long she knew us (Justin and me) and how much we meant to her, sort of out-of-whack yet from her hubby's death.

*

My project was making a housewarming present for someone with a pumpkin theme going on, but before I could get busy, I had to go change my baby's diaper. Where did the baby come from? You got me, but it was my baby! Through the glass windows on top of the plane, it appeared we were dangerously close to rocks, as though flying through mountain passes or something, but I assured all on board that we were fine. As if I knew!

*

All of a sudden, as I finished with the diapering, a decision was made to land in Da Nang and someone was going to have get off and take another flight. Of the men on the plane, one was afraid to get off because he had been a prisoner of war, and since there was only a handful of people, including my now former spouse, but for the dream, still my spouse, and the baby, I volunteered to get off. One man cautioned me, gave the serious warnings about the danger, drama, and possible death, but I still said I would go. And my spouse was going to let me, and leave the baby with him! The other man said there are no bathrooms in Da Nang so I said I would take some diapers with me, and he said, "All we have are toddler size", as if those would not quite do the trick. I think I could have made them work, but we will never know, because I woke up.

*

I used to tell Justin to write down his dreams because his were so interesting. A fortune could be made by us and for others, in the book stores and on the analysts' couches!

*

Once he was relating a dream to Mom and me and I could tell he was pausing, thinking, and then going on. I said, "You're making stuff up" to which he replied, "I'm just adding details for interest." Mom and I lost it, just lost it, and realized that's why we HAD to send him to St. Johns!

*

Dreams seem to be recap of a day's events or a lifetime of events, some real, some too real, and some not real at all!